posted on Feb, 16 2005 @ 04:02 PM
Three CBS executives asked to resign over the
60 Minutes II news piece that used fake memos to attack President George W. Bush's Texas Air
National Guard service record have refused to resign and have hired attorneys to represent them. The journalists are Betsy West, Sr. Vice President;
Josh Howard executive producer of
60 Minutes II; and Mary Murphy, deputy to Mr. Howard.
www.nytimes.com
More than a month after Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS, requested the resignations of three top journalists at the network who helped oversee a
flawed report on the National Guard service of President Bush, they have yet to step down, two CBS officials said yesterday.
The journalists - Betsy West, a senior vice president for CBS News; Josh Howard, executive producer of the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes"; and Mary
Murphy, Mr. Howard's deputy - were asked by Mr. Moonves to resign on Jan. 10, the day he released the findings of an independent panel engaged by CBS
to investigate the flawed report. The panel found that CBS News had rushed the report on to the air on Sept. 8 in a frantic bid to beat its
competitors and had not worked aggressively enough to verify the documents on which the report was based.
Although the three journalists were relieved of their duties on the day the panel reported its findings, none had agreed to Mr. Moonves's request as
of yesterday, according to two network officials who have been informally briefed on the situation.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
I don't blame these executives for fighting back a bit, since this smells like a coverup to protect Rather and higher executives. If a lawsuit does
occur, the public may learn a lot more about what really happened at CBS that allowed these poorly made forgeries make it into a prime time news
magazine.